When a Wake County trial court handed down its decision in the Governor’s lawsuit challenging existing appointment practices, the General Assembly announced a review of the decision and the appointments process. The General Assembly appealed the decision last week. Today the House and Senate Rules Chairmen took two steps to address the court ruling. First, they filed companion bills seeking to bring certain laws addressing executive orders and appointments into compliance with both the trial court’s order and previous Supreme Court rulings. Second, they announced that several outstanding gubernatorial nominations do not appear to be impacted by the trial court’s decision, and the General Assembly intends to move forward with the confirmation process starting with the Governor’s nominee to serve as SBI Director.

“The trial court’s decision would dramatically change how our branches of government have operated for over a century and while we will continue to appeal that decision, we believe the decision raised certain points that require clarification to comply with existing law. We have filed bills today that seek to clarify statutes dating back to 1973 regarding the issuance of executive orders and service by legislators on certain boards,” said House Rules Chairman David Lewis (R-Harnett).

“We have completed our review of the Governor’s pending nominations to determine which are impacted by the trial court ruling and plan to move forward with the confirmation process on several of these nominations including the SBI Director in the coming weeks,” added Senate Rules Chairman Tom Apodaca (R-Henderson).